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Qld readies for storm, NSW cleans up

ELEANOR HALL: But we begin today in south-east Queensland, where residents are bracing for heavy rain and flash flooding, as yet another storm hits the coast.

The weather bureau says 200 millimetres of rain could fall in the next 24 hours, onto already soaked catchments.

As Queenslanders prepare for storms, in New South Wales a massive cleaning up is underway after a super storm cell smashed a thousand kilometres of coastline during the weekend.

Will Ockenden reports.

WILL OCKENDEN: Flood warnings have been issued, as south-east Queensland again gets ready for a massive dump of rain.

Ken Kato is a forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology.

KEN KATO: Twenty-four hour totals could get up to about 100 to 200 millimetres, with possible local heavier falls exceeding 200, especially near the coast and adjacent inland. There might also be some rainfall amounts around 100 millimetres over six hours.

WILL OCKENDEN: It's one month since ex-tropical cyclone Oswald caused widespread flooding in Queensland's south-east, damaging thousands of homes and businesses. The catchments are slick, rivers are ready to flood, and resources are already happening.

This morning, a dozen children were saved by a swift water rescue crew after their bus became stranded in a flash flood on the south side of Brisbane.

KEN KATO: We have a strong upper trough and low over Central Queensland and also a trough at the surface that's come ashore over south-east Queensland. Lots of moist east to north-easterly winds feeding into the eastern side of those and those three weather systems are lifting the moist air and forming all the cloud and rain.

WILL OCKENDEN: How much rain are we seeing over the areas where we saw the devastating floods a month ago?

KEN KATO: Yeah well we're not expecting falls to be quite in the league as what we experienced during ex-tropical cyclone Oswald. Although they probably will be heavy in many places, probably not quite at the same level.

WILL OCKENDEN: The scale of the disaster to the south in New South Wales is becoming clearer, after powerful thunderstorms storms generated by the same low pressure system smashed into the coast over the weekend.

JULIA GILLARD: People are doing it very tough, we've not only seen flooding, we've seen loss of life and now we've seen the devastating impact of these freak storms: the tornados that have done so much damage.

WILL OCKENDEN: In New South Wales, 20,000 people are still isolated. From the Queensland border down to the Illawarra and beyond, the State Emergency Service has received about 5,000 requests for assistance since Friday, with more than 1,500 in the last day.

JULIA GILLARD: They'll be triggered in 11 local government areas, including Kiama. People who want full details of that, details will become available during the course of the day in the normal way. Unfortunately we've got these kind of details out all too frequently because of the things that the weather does but the full information will be available through our disaster assist website.

WILL OCKENDEN: Kiama, 30 kilometres south of Wollongong, was on the end of what's being described as a tornado. Brian Petschler is the mayor.

BRIAN PETSCHLER: I've never seen anything like it and talking to locals yesterday, well locals that have lived here long than I, they haven't seen anything like it either.

WILL OCKENDEN: At least three houses were destroyed, and there's fears the asbestos roof, which was torn from the town's leisure centre, will contaminate and complicate the cleanup.

BRIAN PETSCHLER: The event also hit both Jamberoo and Gerringong in quite significant ways, there was damage in both of those towns too. So it's quite a number of properties that suffered damage from the event, as well as this enormous amount of tree refuse that has to be removed.

WILL OCKENDEN: Across the state, about 4,000 people are still affected by evacuation or warning orders, mostly concentrated around the mid-north coast. For now, New South Wales is cleaning up, but it could soon be back in emergency mode.

Sue Pritchard is from the SES.

SUE PRITCHARD: Rivers that are falling, but there may be renewed activity later in the week as the weather changes again towards Thursday or Friday.

WILL OCKENDEN: If that's not enough to keep authorities busy, on the other side of the country Tropical Cyclone Rusty is developing off Western Australia, threatening communities from Broome to Port Headland.

The weather bureau says there's a high risk it'll cross the coast in a few days as a tropical cyclone, bringing huge amounts of rain to the Pilbara and western Kimberley.

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